Splash Damage devs launch online gaming service

Former Splash Damage executives Arnout van Meer, Stephen Gaffney and Ben Hopkinson have launched Fireteam, a new service providing online support to console, transmedia and free-to-play developers.

"As with many developers, at Splash Damage we often outsourced this component to a multitude of varying specialist providers, most of which have since been acquired," explained CTO Van Meer.

"Now, with significant planning and research, we've launched this as a separate venture to Splash Damage. This specifically allows us to focus on improving the quality of online services. Because we're going to help improve how smoothly games are launched and operate, we're pleased to be offering our services to Splash Damage as one of our first customers."

Meer was formerly technical director at Splash Damage, while Gaffney was studio director and Hopkinson was IT manager. Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgewood has invested in the new start up.

"We believe players deserve a great online experience, reliability, performance, more content and connectivity," said CEO Gaffney.

"Together, we've gained years of experience integrating online services into some of the worlds' best-selling multiplayer games. We're now really happy to be completely dedicated to building this as a service and platform."

The online service provider will support Unreal and Unity titles across consoles, Windows, Mac, iOS and Android and help with features like matchmaking, connectivity and friend lists.

Developers and publishers will still own community management and marketing with their own user accounts.

"We're here to help publishers and developers add a rich suite of features that help attract, engage and retain players," added operations director Hopkinson.

"And we know publishers will love the increased revenue that is a direct result of increased player engagement; players get more content that they want, they invite more friends, and together they spend more on your games."